Governance Effectiveness On Capitation Grant And Education Outcomes In Primary Schools In Tanzania: A Case Study Of Morogoro Region

ABSTRACT

The implementation of strategies to improve the academic performance of pupils varies around the world. This could be due to variation in available resources and their utilisation proficiency. In Tanzania, primary education accounted for over 40% of the national education budget from 2008/09 to 2012/2013 Financial Years. The governance of capitation grant (CG) in Government primary schools (GPS) in Morogoro region, as in many other regions of Tanzania, is under school committees (SCs) with expectations that the CG would be well managed to give intended outcomes. However, there are incidents of mismanagement of the grant and declining pass-rates in the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLEs) in Tanzania. Nevertheless, there is not enough knowledge on the compliance of SCs with written rules, and on the effect of governance and CG on pupils’ academic performance. In addition, there is scanty information on the functioning of School Committees in terms of their coping strategies, decisiveness, financial management skills and governing aspect. In addition, there was not enough empirical evidence to support the effect of school governance and capitation grant, as important school system components, on education outcomes. Therefore, guided by the Open System Theory (OST), Agency Theory (AT), Institutional Theory (IT) and Cognitive Resource Theory (CRT), the study was conducted from August, 2014 to March 2015 in Morogoro region to address the specified knowledge gap. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design with mixed approach: qualitative and quantitative. The study found that: SCs did not comply with spending rules due to inadequate CG; there was much dependence of SCs members on school heads in decision making; SCs members were not skilled in financial management; and adherence to good governance principles was not enough because SCs did not guarantee maximum effectiveness, rule of law and accountability in capitation grant spending. This implies that there was imperfect

iii

link between the Capitation Grant Policy and the actual capitation grant spending practice which can be a breeding ground for the misuse of the grant. The hierarchical multiple regressions revealed a significant effect on pass-rates of CG disbursed to schools (ΔR2=0.033, ΔF=4.847, p < 0.05) and other school system components, but not that of governance (ΔR2=0.041, ΔF=1.212, p > 0.05). In addition, it is revealed that the CGDS and governance contributed to 7.5% of variance (combined ΔR2 = 0.033 + 0.042) in the total variance (R2 = 0.406). Also, their combination improved the prediction of pass-rate by Teacher Pupil Ratio (TPR) from 62.5% (β = -0.625, t = -5.249, p < 0.01) to 68.1% (β = -0.681, t = -5.710, p < 0.01). It is recommended that the Government and other stakeholders improve disbursement, management and governance of the capitation grant, and the TPR so as to boost the academic performance of pupils in the study area and others with similar conditions.